What is the Google Indexing API? How and When to Use It (2026)

What is the Google Indexing API?

The Google Indexing API is an HTTP service launched by Google in 2018 that allows website owners to notify Google about new or changed URLs. When a request is sent to the API endpoint, Google adds the URL to a high-priority crawl queue and Googlebot typically fetches the page within minutes to a few hours. The intent of the API is to reduce the gap between content publication and search visibility for time-sensitive page types.

The Indexing API exposes two operations: URL_UPDATED (tells Google a URL has been added or changed) and URL_DELETED (tells Google a URL has been permanently removed). Each request is authenticated using OAuth 2.0 via a service account.

The Indexing API is sometimes referred to as the "instant indexing API" because of how quickly Google responds to submissions. The phrase is informal, there is no Google product literally called Instant Indexing. It spread through SEO communities as a shorthand for the speed advantage the API offers compared to passive discovery methods.

How the Indexing API Differs from Sitemaps and URL Inspection

Sitemaps

An XML sitemap is a passive list of URLs hosted on your domain that Googlebot reads on its own schedule. Sitemaps are excellent for communicating site structure but they do not trigger immediate crawling. A change reflected in the sitemap may not be picked up by Googlebot for hours or days.

URL Inspection tool

The URL Inspection tool inside Google Search Console lets you manually request indexing for a single URL. It is rate limited to roughly 10 to 12 requests per day per property and requires manual interaction. Useful for one-off pages but does not scale.

Indexing API

The Indexing API is programmatic. It accepts up to 200 requests per day per project by default and can be triggered automatically whenever a page is published or updated. The API is the highest throughput option for prompting Google to fetch URLs.

Official Google Policy on Eligibility

Google's official documentation states that the Indexing API can be used only for pages containing JobPosting or BroadcastEvent structured data. Google's reasoning is that both content types are highly time sensitive. For these specific verticals, the API offers a measurable user experience benefit.

Google's stated position is that submitting URLs that are not JobPosting or BroadcastEvent pages "may result in your access to the API being restricted." In practice, no widespread account suspensions have been reported for non-eligible submissions.

The Unofficial Reality

Despite Google's stated restrictions, the SEO community has been using the Indexing API for general URLs (blog posts, product pages, landing pages) for years. The observed behaviour is consistent: submissions for non-eligible URLs are accepted by the API and return a 200 response, Googlebot typically crawls within minutes to hours, and whether the URL is then indexed depends on Google's normal indexing pipeline.

Our recommendation: treat the Indexing API as a crawl signal, not as a guaranteed indexing path. If your URL has JobPosting or BroadcastEvent schema, you are within official guidelines. If your URL is a regular content page, the API can still help speed up discovery, but rely also on solid sitemap hygiene, internal linking, and content quality.

How to Set Up the Indexing API

1. Create a Google Cloud project. Visit console.cloud.google.com, sign in, and create a new project. Note the Project ID.

2. Enable the Indexing API. Open the API Library, search for "Web Search Indexing API" and click Enable.

3. Create a service account. In IAM and Admin, create a new service account. Generate a JSON key and download the file. Treat this key like a password, never commit it to a public repository.

4. Verify ownership in Google Search Console. The Indexing API only accepts submissions for URLs on properties you own.

5. Add the service account as an Owner in Search Console. Go to Settings, Users and Permissions, click Add User, paste the service account email, and set permission to Owner.

Quotas and Limits

You can request a higher publish quota through the Google Cloud Console. Approval is manual and not guaranteed. Sites that publish more than 200 new or updated URLs per day (large news publishers, large job boards) typically get higher quotas approved.

What Happens After Submission

1. The URL is added to Google's high-priority crawl queue.

2. Googlebot typically attempts to fetch the URL within minutes to a few hours.

3. If the fetch succeeds and the page returns a 200 status code, Google parses the content and runs it through the indexing pipeline.

4. The indexing pipeline evaluates content quality, duplicate detection, canonicalisation, and crawl signals.

5. If the page meets indexing criteria, it appears in search results within hours to a couple of days.

The Indexing API guarantees only step 1 and accelerates step 2. It does not bypass the indexing pipeline. Pages that are blocked by robots.txt, marked noindex, or considered low quality will not be indexed regardless of how many times they are submitted.

How to Verify the Result

After submitting a URL through the Indexing API, confirm what happened using the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. Navigate to URL Inspection, paste the URL, and check the report. Look for: last crawl date (should reflect a recent fetch), indexing status (should show "URL is on Google" once indexed), and canonical (confirms which URL Google considers canonical). If the URL Inspection tool still shows an old crawl date 24 hours after API submission, check robots.txt, the page status code, noindex headers, and the canonical tag.

Indexing API vs Sitemap vs URL Inspection

If You Have a Framer Site

Framer does not natively support the Google Indexing API. To use it directly, you would need to set up the entire Cloud project, service account, and JSON key infrastructure, write a script that polls your sitemap or CMS for new URLs, and run that script on a server.

RankFrame's Submit Indexing tab handles the Indexing API automatically. Once installed inside your Framer project, the plugin connects to your verified Google Search Console property and routes submissions through a managed Indexing API pipeline. There is no Google Cloud project to create, no service account JSON key for your Framer site to manage, no script to write, and no server to maintain. You select a URL from your Framer site, click Submit, and the plugin sends the request and reports back live confirmation that the submission was accepted.

Beyond manual submissions, RankFrame's Submit Indexing panel keeps a full indexing history per URL. You can see when each URL was last submitted, the response status, the most recent crawl date returned by Google, and whether the URL is currently indexed. A URL that has been submitted three times with no indexing typically signals a content quality, canonicalisation, or robots.txt issue that needs investigating.